FEMEN – Feminist Crusaders from The Ukraine

The headquarters door for Femen, the women’s right group, has an interesting adornment of large sculpted breasts. Yellow and blue paint was used in the sculpture.

The Ukraine recognizes this group for the daring topless antics that they are involved in, but a very important question that is floating around is whether or not Femen is able to affect significant change.

This group is not planning to be cautious although there are several complaints of harassment from the police and having a lot of persons who strongly disagree with their actions and beliefs. The young or new generation feminist movement has no desire to operate like traditional groups of this kind.

Defending The Rights Of Women In West Ukraine – Or Just Annoying Attention Seekers?

Oleksandra Shevchenko Femen assisted in founding the women’s right movement, following the observance of women’s status being belittled in Ukraine in its post-Soviet state.

Their reaction was founded on the basis that too many women were being used in overseas human trafficking for prostitution purposes or being advertised as mail order brides that are accessible via the Internet.

Shevchenko stated that men have been using the sexuality of women and their bodies for too many years. She along with several women realized that they, and certainly not men, should be in control of their bodies and sexuality.

They make the decision about what they do with their bodies, the breasts and their sexuality. No one but them decide whether or not they should expose their breasts.

The decision to go topless was not the first thing on their agenda but they strongly believe that stripping allowed them to have a broader audience for them to get their message out.

Following the issue being discussed in feminist groups in a Western Ukraine university, the groups started protesting in Kiev. A cross was cut down by one of the Femen protesters and the explanation was that they were attacking religion that was considered as patriarchal.

It is important to note though that not every Ukrainian is interested in what the feminist groups have to say. Several persons generally react to the mention of them with snorts and/or raised eyebrows.

They are considered to be self-publicists by some people and they are not taken seriously. Some even think they are involved in a decoy plan to ease off the pressure from the government which they always seem to be attacking.

As stated by Shevchenko, there are approximately 40 activists located in Ukraine who have decided to go topless and they are joined by about 100 more protesters from abroad. Editors in the West are very accommodating to these feminist groups. This is evident in the space that is given by editors to feminists to bare their breasts with messages and slogans smeared over them.

The breast in its bare state is believed to be their weapon, although the breasts objectified them for several decades. Feminists in the West embrace the debate that have been started because of them as well as the attention that is now given to an issue that had no significant place in the news over many years.